


On Call Boyfriend

by digitalsoop



Category: Free!
Genre: Gen, Post Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 21:19:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3544148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitalsoop/pseuds/digitalsoop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sousuke is puzzled when Gou calls and greets him as Sweetie, but he's the kinda person to roll with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Call Boyfriend

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: Gou convinces Sousuke to pretend to be her boyfriend.

Sousuke squinted, pulled his phone away from his ear to check the screen and then brought it back: “I’m sweetie now?” 

Even though he had known Gou since childhood, she had never once referred to him as anything other than Sousuke-kun. He just couldn’t get her to drop the honorific. She had sent him a text saying she was hungry, and to call her in five minutes, but—

”This isn’t about food, is it?”

"A friend suggested a place to eat, and I know you’ve been studying all day. I thought you could use a break!" Gou chirped. 

"Yeah." He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. There were textbooks all over his desk, a mess that would have made Rin scream. "I’m almost done with the notes for this chapter. Maybe six or eight pages." 

"Have you been stopping to stretch?" That low, stern tone was more familiar. Not that Gou’s voice could really get that low. 

"Yeah, yeah. Even if I wasn’t you would just give me a massage anyway."

"Pretty soon my massages won’t be free," she grumbled. "Will you go? You can leave those pages for later!" 

"I’m really—" 

"We’re already here, you know?" 

Oh.He flipped his textbook shut, took a long, deep breath, and stood up from his desk. “I don’t need a tie to get into this place, do I?” 

"Nope. Just a casual little place with good beer." 

"I’m coming in my pajamas." 

“Sweetie.” 

He rolled his shoulder once and left his room. Sometimes he wondered if he should just move out already, give his parents a break, but not having any nosy room mates asking him why he was jogging down the stairs was a good enough reason to not live with other students. “They’re dark sweat pants and my t-shirt is clean, it’s fine. Rin wears this kinda stuff out all the time. Anyway, where’s this hole in the wall you got yourself stuck in?” 

***

It really wasn’t as much of a hole in the wall as he had imagined. A typical, small restaurant that had a devoted following of students and office workers, serving the same things every other small restaurant served—but this one just had that special something, he was sure. 

He took a moment to run his hand through his hair, straighten his shirt, and catch his breath; it had been a while since he had sprinted anywhere. Gou had cheerfully told him they were in a room in the back, a room that he had to duck to get into.

"Whoa, so tall!" 

"Scary—are we getting kicked out? We’re sorry mister, we won’t yell so much anymore." 

"He’s in fucking sweat pants he don’t work here!"

"We’re not even yelling! Why would they kick us out?" 

Sousuke rubbed his shoulder, looking up and down the table. Gou was tucked in the corner, wide eyed and smiling, the second odd one out in a room full of drunk couples. “I’m Sousuke Yamazaki, Gou’s boyfriend.” 

"Hey, no way! Nice to meet you." 

"Yeah, nice to meet you! We didn’t know you two were dating!

"Gou really talks about you a lot!" 

Gou loudly denied the accusation and he carefully stepped around belongings and limbs, wedging himself between Gou and a very put out kid with a nice haircut and very red ears. The other odd one out.

Someone asked how his shoulder was, and he admitted that he was fine. Gou’s massages were the best in Japan, after all. Another was skeptical of the height difference, but it didn’t matter much to him. He could put her up on his shoulder if he wanted to. His good one anyway. 

They wanted to know everything about him, and Gou was more than happy to drink and talk about their childhood together, until they were all talking about their childhoods and he was mostly forgotten. That suited him, really, because he was free to lean back, one arm behind Gou’s shoulders and the other free to reach across the table and scavenge some free food. 

He tilted his head and quietly offered her some. She held up her hands, one holding a half finished stick of yakitori and the other holding a beer. “Just feed it to me,” she reasoned, and she opened her mouth.

He raised his eyebrows but did as he was told; he watched her exclaim over how good it was and slipped the beer from her hand so she could take more. “Hey.” He glanced at her yakitori and opened his mouth, and she was all too happy to leave it in his mouth like she was giving a dog a bone. It did not taste as good as it had looked. No one noticed him drop the stick back into his hand and toss it onto a plate. 

Gou didn’t notice as he downed the rest of her beer either. Better he drink it. Carrying someone home would put a serious strain on his shoulder. 

She patted his thigh and introduced her drunk friends as classmates from anatomy, and math for health sciences, and homeroom from junior high. That one he kind of recognized, but she looked a lot different when her hair wasn’t up in a bun. The recognition seemed to be mutual, because she was leaning on the table and watching him very closely. 

"I’m so jealous, Gou. I wish I had a tall boyfriend, too," she grumbled.

"I’m not that short, don’t complain," a guy protested.

"Hey, the only one that should be disappointed is Haruto, right?" The kid next to him grew even redder as the room filled with laughter. "He was really puttin’ on the moves, right? Then she tells him she already has a boyfriend."

"Tough luck for Haruto." 

Sousuke rubbed Gou’s neck and gave Haruto a glance. Haruto was stuck glancing between Sousuke’s smile and Gou curling against him, reaching out to hold his hand and twine their fingers together. Sousuke's smile widened when their eyes met. “Yeah, tough luck, Haruto-kun.”


End file.
